"Love" Valentines Day letters

    Sorry for the delay getting this blog up.  It has been such a crazy week.  Two of the kids and myself decided to become really sick this week.  That did not leave too much time for much of anything.  That was last week, and now I'm ready to write!

    Over the next week you are going to perhaps curse me because every blog will be about Valentines Day.  In our house Valentines Day is a BIG deal!  In the past it was never that big of a deal for me, unless you count all those many years ago when I did not have a boyfriend at the time (which I rarely did. It was usually after Valentines the most prized or depressing holiday of the single person's heart).  Valentines did not become such a big holiday for me until I had kids.  For me it's that special day to go over the top (like I need a special day) telling my kids how much I love them (Christopher not as much).  

    This holiday I've gotten a little creative.  I decided to make huge "LOVE" letters.  I made the letters and then I got the kids to help decorate them.  I used 4 sheets of red bristol board.  With ruler and pencil  in hand I began to make 3-D letters.  It really proved easier than I thought.  I cut out a large "L", then cut strips to use along the sides. 

    My final product did not look attractive, but that's o.k. because I was gong to cover them all up with tissue paper any way!  

    After the letters were constructed, I pulled out my guillotine and chopped up small squares of tissue paper.

    Next was the fun part.  I think we all remember making those tissue paper flowers and everything else in school.  It began as lots of fun, with me taking my time carefully placing each piece of paper.  By the end of the project I was just shoving handfuls of tissue on just to be done.  I then wondered why my art did not look as good as I would have liked.

    Gracie was at a sleep over the night we did the letters.  I knew that I would hear all about it when she got home, because all of my kids LOVE crafts.  She would be most upset that we had done something fun without her.

    I gave each kid their own letter and kept one for myself (why would I go to all of that trouble and then let them have all of the fun).  We even gave Christopher a job.  I'm not sure why, but Christopher hates crafts, avoids them like the plague.  I guess there must not have been a hockey game on, because even he came into the kitchen. We set him to work making tissue flowers for the kids.

    It was a beautiful night.  We all just sat around the table, laughing and talking. There was no ipods, no TV, no computer, just us.  

    When we had finished everyone was really proud of their finished product.  They had so much fun doing them.  When the glue was all dry (the next day) I set them up on the piano.  Now every time I look at the piano I remember that evening when it was just us.  Who knew that something as simple as bristol board letters would give so much peace... not me, but they did.

The Ontario Science Centre

            "LOOK WITH YOUR EYES, NOT WITH YOUR HANDS!"  These are the words I say so often when I have my kids out, that even I hate hearing myself say them.   The problem is that kids love to touch.  Touching and manipulating things helps their brains to learn.  That's all well and good, but not a great idea at a museum... ordinarily.  At the Ontario Science Centre, kids are encouraged to touch everything... what a novel idea.

    Over the last couple of years, Christopher and I have been trying to give the kids experiences more so than "things" for Christmas.  If I think back to my childhood there may be one or two gifts that I recall receiving, but I recall events.  With that thought in mind Christopher suggested a family membership to the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto as a family gift.  The price was right and so I thought it was a great idea, the gift that keeps on giving, because membership allowed us as many visits as we wanted.

    It turns out that membership is really the smart way to go.  Our family membership cost us $130.00.  That entitled us to as many visits as we desired to take to the science centre.  It got us half price parking and half price Imax movies.  It also entitled us to 20% off of the restaurants and stores.  Not too shabby, most especially when you begin to do the math.

    The PA day in January we took the kids to the Science Centre.  They were buzzing with excitement.   Our entire day, not including our lunch cost us $36.00, not including our membership.  If you include our $130.00 membership, our day cost $166.00.  To break that down it's ....

$130.00 membership

$5.00 parking (try finding $5.00 parking anywhere else in Toronto)

$13.00 for Christopher and I both to see the Imax movie

$18.00 for all four kids to see the Imax movie.

----------

$166.00

That was a one time cost.  Every other time it will just cost us $36.00.

  Here is what our day would have cost without the membership...

Adult Admission (18-64) $22.00 just admission, $13.00 for Imax , $28.00 for a combined admission

Youth (13 - 17)                $16.00 just admission, $ 9.00 for Imax ,  $22.00 for a combined admission

Child (3 - 12)                   $13.00 just admission, $ 9.00 for Imax ,   $19.00 for a combined admission

Parking $10.00

----------------

$142.00 

That is what it will cost every time.

See what I mean?

    The very first thing that we did upon entering the building was to look at the Imax movie selections and their times.  We did not want to miss an opportunity to see a movie.  It was good that we decided to do it this way, because otherwise we would not have been able to watch "Flight of the Butterfly".  It was an amazing look at the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly and it's unthinkable migration pattern.  As we were exiting the theatre, Riley asked if we could plant a butterfly garden this summer.  The funny thing was that I was going to ask the kids what they thought of the idea.

    The next order of business was to see the newest children's exhibit "Sesame Street Presents: The Human Body".  The big kids loved it even more than Elly.  It showed the human body in a really neat, kid friendly way.  My guys especially enjoyed the "Poop" songs.

    It was a great hands on way for the kids to learn about their bodies.  Being the nerd that I am, when we got to the heart, I showed Riley where her Pulmonary Stenosis is. She just rolled her eyes at me as I used my finger to mimic the flap of tissue that sits in her pulmonary valve.

    Not to disappoint Grace I also showed her on the skeleton what bones that she had broken in her feet and leg... this time instead of the eye roll, I got a head shake.

    I really liked the race course that they had set up.  It raced a child walking, biking and in a wheel chair.  What I especially liked about this was how it taught children to be inclusive.  All of my kids walked away from the wheelchair stating that "it was harder than it looked".  Without knowing that they had learned anything, they had learned first hand how difficult it can be to have a disability (walk a mile in their shoes, or more accurately Wheel a mile in their chair).

    After we had our fill of the Sesame Street exhibit, we wandered over to The Human Edge.  There was so much to see and touch and do, that we didn't even scratch the surface.  It really was fascinating.

Grace got to give an ultrasound to a pregnant display

  

    We were unable to look at the full exhibit because the Science Centre is only open from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. week days.  We had not arrived until 12:00 p.m.  The kids really wanted to visit the Science Arcade, and so we had to leave the Human Edge.

    The first thing that the kids saw in this new area was the "Touch a Tornado" exhibit.   They LOVED it.  Each one fought to touch the mini tornado.

    Before we knew it, there was an announcement over the PA system, telling us that the Science Centre was closing in 15 minutes, could we please make our way to the exit.  This was met with a chorus of disappointed "awwww but we were just having fun!"  We had barely scratched the surface with all of the exhibits.  As we walked to the car with sad little children they all begged to come back to the Science Centre.  It was nice to be able to tell them that we can come back as many times as we would like to.  

http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/

Daddy the Bird Rescuer

    THUMP... that all too familiar heart wrenching sound.  The sound that signaled the impact of a little bird on our picture window.  It brought us all running, peering out the window.  All of us stood there looking out the window trying to see if the poor little feathered victim was moving.  

    We put the poor little motionless finch on watch.  Each kid took a turn watching out the window to see if there was any movement and to ensure it's safety from neighbourhood cats.  After a half hour watch, Christopher suited up, with a little yellow bucket in hand, he was on a bird rescue mission.

He came back in shortly with a tiny little bird, it's little feet all curled in, it's little eyes staring glassily.

"I think it's dead" he told the disappointed kids.  Rowan had already named it Chewbacca (don't ask me what goes on in that little red head of his).  We decided to let it stay in the house for half an hour, just in case the impact had stunned it.  

    It was not even half an hour later when we heard another THUMP.  "Oh No" the kids all shouted in unison.  Once again there was a mad dash for the picture window, and then a running commentary.

"It's not moving!"  "No, wait... it's head's moving...IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!"  By this point Christopher the bird rescuer was on the move again. 

    We sat at the window, glued to his every move.  The look of empathy on his face was beautiful.  There was this big man, with this tiny little creature in his hand.  I was glad that the kids were seeing their Daddy like this.

    Christopher took the little bird and placed it in a sheltered area on the front steps. We did our vigil, waiting to see if the little creature would recover, or if we would need to intervene.  The kids had ideas of a pet bird. I kept trying to tell them that this was a wild creature.  It would be cruel to keep it as a pet, it belonged outside in the wild.  No matter how much I told them, their little faces were full of hope that we would have to nurture this little finch back to health ... aka keep it as a pet.

    After the bird had been out there for about half an hour (that seems to be our magic time),  Christopher became concerned that it might be too cold.  "When I picked it up, it's little feet were like ice".  I went to my sewing stash and came out with a small square of fleece to put the finch on.  When we opened the front door to put "Fluffy" on, he/ she flew away.  The kids let out a triumphant "YEAH", and then it occurred to them that they would not be having a pet bird.  We watched it sit on the fence and then fly away.  I felt a great sense of peace, that we (Christopher) had helped to save a small life.

The Disastrous Cooking Class!

    There are moments of clarity in my life, that are not always heart warming.  I have a life goal of being a kind peaceful human being, like Buddha.  I would like my children when I am dead and gone to canonize me, Saint Momma.  Unfortunately I don't think that will happen.  No, I have realized (especially in light of the story I am about to share) that I really am a control freak, and that I need more patience.... oh yeah, and I think I'm o.k. with that.
    So here begins my epic story of self discovery...

    Grace had a French project.  Her project was to create a menu in French.  Groups were encouraged to bring in one item off of their menu.  Grace came home uber excited "I told my group that you would make calzones, everyone loves your calzones!"  My first thought should have been to spot the web, but no the flattery fooled me and I walked right into it.  Stupidly I had that delusional moment when I was possessed by that kind and gentle mother that I long to be.  "How many kids are in your group?"  I stupidly asked.  Grace's eyes brightened waiting to see what I was going to suggest.  "There are three other girls and myself."  "Did you want to invite the girls over and I will help you to make calzones?"  Her face lit up and I had that stupid moment of bliss, feeling like an amazing mother (this should have been my first alarm).
    As the day quickly approached I had that all too familiar, "Oh GOD what have I done?" moment.  When it was an event in the future it seemed like a wonderful idea, but as it approached... not so much. All too quickly the day came.  I had shopped, and washed veggies.  I set up two cutting boards, with washed veggies at the ready.  I had one place set with a cheese grater and bowl.  I was ready.
    I was still feeling like Mom of the year, ready to impart my cooking wisdom to the next generation.  I had sat the girls down and told them what we were going to do.  I showed them the proper way to cut the veggies safely, and in the sizes that I wanted.  I thought that I had been very clear.  I stood back, not wanting to hover, trying not to be too much of a control freak (like a leopard trying not to have spots).  I felt like I had been very specific, until I looked at the veggies that Grace and her friend had cut.  Obviously they had not been paying attention, they looked like they had been attacked by a lawnmower.  I took a deep breath.  It was o.k. it didn't matter if the veggies bits were perfect (or looked like something a cow had regurgitated).  I took a deep breath, trying to convince myself.  I told the girls to go hang out while I made the pizza dough and sauteed the hideous vegetables.
    I spent about 45 minutes making the pizza dough, cutting little squares of waxed paper, and rolling out perfect little circles of dough.  I set up three stations with pizza sauce, sauteed veggies, pepperoni and grated mozzarella cheese.  I called the girls down, and told them to wash up, it was time to make calzones.  When they were all washed up and seated I showed them what to do.  "Carefully spoon the pizza sauce in the middle of the dough.  Then you want to put your pepperoni and cheese not too much because I have to be able to close them.  Don't close them yourself, because there is a special way of doing it so that they don't leak".  Before I had even finished speaking, I looked over and one of the friends had a smug little look on her face with her folded over calzone.  "Look at mine Mom"  I looked over at Grace's. She had made a pizza.  Deep breath.  I repeated the same instructions, only to find Grace's one friend had once again folded hers over.  Extra deep breath.  I decided to just let them do what ever they wanted.  It was their project.  I stood there watching the calzone massacre unfold, horrified, ready to blow.   My carefully rolled dough was being smushed into balls.  The pizza dough spread everywhere.  Deep breath.
    The first batch of calzones came out of the oven, they looked like someone had jumped all over them.  In other words they were a disaster.  "Hey I think that you guys should eat these ones".  They were so excited to dig into their creations.  "Oh, why don't you guys just have fun, and I'll finish up the calzones!"  I thought I was being so sneaky, such a good actress, trying to hide the ever quickly hysteria that was at the edge of escaping.  "You just think we stink, and you want them to look good, don't you Mom."  Grace said with a smartie pants half smile.  "Oh Dear God YES, I just can't take it any more!"  Did I mention that during the course of the disastrous cooking class I may have lost my cool a few times.  I may have squealed "Why can't any of you listen?"  It was really not very pretty.  Luckily these are girls who know me, and I think truth be told half expected me to just shove them out of the kitchen and take over.

    This little trip down cooking Hell just proves to me that I was right not to go into the teaching profession.  It also confirms the fact that I so desperately struggle with and always lose at. I am a control freak! There I said it.  Everyone else knows, I don't know why I think I'm fooling anyone, most especially myself.  Wow, that feels much better.  I think I should hold off on the Saint Momma stationary.

Gabe's Spirit of Kindness

   

Gabriel’s Campaign of Kindness

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn 

a life around.

~Leo B

Gabriel was an ordinary child.  He had an ordinary child’s future aspirations.  When he grew up he was not sure if he wanted to be a mechanic, an architect, or a ninja.  He had all of the uncertainty and wonder of a child who was 9, almost 10.   He had his life ahead of him to narrow his options.  On December 24, 2004, Gabriel’s choices for the future were taken from him and from us as his parents.  On Christmas Eve his life slipped away due to grievous head injuries that he had sustained in a car accident three days before.  We would never see what he finally decided on for his future ambitions, because he no longer had a future.  For almost 10 years we had watched this little boy change and grow and had seen a glimpse of the man that he might one day become.  Now we were left with heartache and disillusionment.  What was our role now in his life?   

An idea slowly crept into our brains.  We had always thought that Gabriel was destined for greatness, he could not achieve this on his own anymore, but we could help him.  He could still inspire people to be their best.  In his name we could recognize the greatness of others.  Gabriel’s kindness and his compassion were two of his greatest character traits.  They are traits that we as parents and as citizens value most.  It was from this idea that the “Gabe Lindsay Spirit of Kindness Award” for Tweed Senior Public School.

On February 2, 2005 the first Gabe Lindsay Spirit of Kindness Award was given to a student at Tweed Hungerford Senior School. We decided that for the school it would be “Gabe” instead of “Gabriel” because this was an award for his peers and his peers knew him as Gabe, and the shortened name was what he adamantly preferred.    

February 2, 2005 was the day that Gabe would have turned 10 years old.  We felt that on this day, the day that 10 years ago we had celebrated the birth of our first child, our oldest son this would be the day that we should celebrate kindness.  On the first award assembly the school watched a slide show of Gabe’s life.  They discussed who he was and why this award was so important. 

 As the years have passed the assembly and spirit of kindness award have changed and evolved.  This year’s celebration saw a new and touching evolution to the award.  For 2009 there was “Gabe’s Spirit of Kindness Week”.  It began on Friday, January 23 with an assembly.  At this assembly the students were reminded about why award was so important and who Gabe was.  The book “Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed” was read to the school.  This was the story of an ordinary child’s kind deed that went on to multiply and travel around the world until it became billions of kind deed and eventually came back full circle to Mary.  The students exploded into applause mid-story.  It was amazing to see their response.  

The principal then challenged each class to commit one act of kindness as a class.  And asked that each class select a reporter to report back to the whole school on Monday, February 2 what their class had decided upon.  Each student was also given a small acrylic heart to keep in their pocket that would act as a reminder to think about what kind act they could commit.

The students met again on Monday, February 2 once again in the gym.  Each class came forward and told the school what they had done as their class act of kindness.  

One class made fruit trays and took one to each class.  One class was asked to draw names from a hat and write a paragraph about what they liked about that classmate.  This was a difficult task, because not everyone in the class liked the person whose name they pulled.  Two of the students went up to the front of the gym and read their paragraph about a classmate.  One class decided that they would read 100 books and that by doing that Scholastic Canada would then donate 100 books to children in need.  One class saved the books that they had earned from their book orders and some of the parents sent in toys that they would send to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.  One class’s Educational assistant’s husband had just had a heart attack, and the class donated $100.00 to help her with her gas costs to go back and forth to Kingston.    The grade 7’s and 8’s decided that they would like to work as a group and organized a dodge ball tournament on Saturday,  January 31.  They asked each team to donated a $25.00 entry fee.  Their goal was to raise $400.00 to send to Africa to help rehabilitate child soldiers.  They raised $600.00 to send.

It is quite humbling to see what an inspiration Gabriel has become.  To see that his life will continue to mean something important, even if he is not able to inspire others in the flesh, his spirit will live on and inspire goodness in others.

  

Rainbow Connection Birthday Gift

    As I have already shared, Rainbow Loom has taken over my small house.  There are elastics everywhere.  My two big girls are working like they are in a sweatshop, frantically cranking out bracelets like they have a quota.  I am not a big fan of the daily game of hide and seek that I play with all of those little colourful elastics, but I am happy that the girls are having fun with something that is not electronic (although having said that, they quite often have their ipods in front of them coaching them on youtube tutorials for the looms).

    I take comfort in the fact that these looms have not only taken over my home, but pretty much every home of breathing young girls.  We all play a daily game of find that colourful elastic in the most odd place.  It's like a game of one upmanship.  "Oh I found elastics in the washing machine."  "Oh yeah, I found them in my underpants!"  "YOU WIN!".

    Recently Riley was invited to a birthday party.  I did my usual routine of "what do you think that she might like?"  Riley had already asked Jenna this question and Jenna's response was "Blueray DVDs", thankfully, Riley has my brain for the most part and asked a follow up question "Do you have a Rainbow Loom?"  Asking this question to a girl is like asking "Do you have a mouth?"  Jenna did indeed have a Rainbow Loom or one of the similar contraptions.  This information shaped the gift that Jenna was to receive.

    In an effort to keep all of the my girls Rainbow Loom trinkets in one place, and to make it easier for them to cart them everywhere, I recently purchased clear small totes with handles on them for both Riley and Grace.  This was a perfect size for them to keep everything together, and large enough for their Rainbow Looms to fit in.  This was my genius idea for Jenna's birthday gift.

    Riley and I headed out on our shopping expedition earlier this week.  She was uber excited to make her purchases.  She poured over the loom bands, selecting a few gifts for her self too.  We purchased a tote, the same as hers and Grace's.  We also purchased raised letter stickers from Michaels.  A trip to the dollar store was also in order to purchase a small organizer.

    Last night we put that awesome gift together.  Riley was nearly vibrating she was so excited.  She began by applying the larger letters onto the tote, and the smaller ones onto the small organizer.  Sometimes it is scary how much she thinks like me.  She painstakingly applied each letter, careful about the spacing.  After the letters were applied, she opened up the bands and we organized them in the small organizer, I will admit that I enjoyed this.

    After we had fit as many beads and elastics into the organizer that we could, Riley placed the container in the larger container and added some extra elastics.

    The final part of the gift was applying fun scrapbooking stickers onto the outside of the tote to fancy it up.  When we had finished, both Riley and I had big satisfied smiles on our faces.  I kept shouting out "This is such a great gift!" to be echoed by "It really is" by mini me.  When we had finished Riley excitedly gathered up the left over stickers to fancy up her own tote.

     So often I am at a complete loss for what to give for the multitude of birthday parties that the kids are invited to.  It's important to me that we give a good gift, but good gifts generally come with a hefty price tag.  This good gift did not.  This gift was easily under $15.  You can make it as big or as small as you would like.  For one of my nieces I would probably add a Rainbow Loom (because apparently you can connect them to make larger projects), and would fill an extra organizer.  For as long as Rainbow Looms are the it toy, I think this will be my go to gift.